But we can now stop the bidding. Because a 45th candidate has just emerged, and he is about to clear the field. Yes, the man Democrats have been waiting for, Sen. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, says he has \u201can obligation to consider\u201d running for president \u2013 and tacks on a Trumpian tease: \u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casey is the total package \u2014 assuming the Democrats\u2019 idea of a total package is mild, earnest and quite possibly the most boring person in politics.<\/p>\n
This is why they should instead go with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker \u2013 unless Democrats are concerned about their standard-bearer being a showboat who declares, with straight face, \u201cI am Spartacus.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this case, I say: Go with everyman Joe Biden \u2013 as long as they won\u2019t mind putting a 77-year-old former vice president up against a 74-year-old incumbent.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, the best choice would be youthful California Rep. Eric Swalwell though the 38-year-old\u2019s main qualification is cable news overexposure.<\/p>\n
Hence, the need for a candidate of substance: Minnesota\u2019s Sen. Amy Klobuchar \u2013 as long as her perceived lack of toughness isn\u2019t a problem.<\/p>\n
If it is, combative Sen. Kamala Harris of California is the best option. But she\u2019s not the person you\u2019d want to have a beer with.<\/p>\n
No, that person is Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who once ran a brewery. Except his name makes everybody giggle.<\/p>\n
Better, then, to go with another white guy from Colorado, Sen. Michael Bennet \u2013 assuming the electorate is as excited as he is by filibuster reform.<\/p>\n
If not, the fiery populist Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is top choice \u2013 unless Democrats think her DNA-test adventure means President Trump has her number with \u201cPocahontas.\u201d<\/p>\n
If genuineness is the essential quality, Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke of Texas is the man, though he is a failed Senate candidate, which also probably knocks out West Virginia\u2019s Richard Ojeda, a failed House candidate.<\/p>\n
Therefore, may I suggest Sen. Sherrod Brown or Rep. Tim Ryan, who win among Ohio steelworkers? Except there aren\u2019t that many workers left.<\/p>\n
The Latino population, by contrast, is large and growing, making former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro ideal. If only Latinos turned out to vote.<\/p>\n
This is why I would suggest an outsider, such as billionaires Howard Schultz (except he\u2019s not ready to mix it up with Trump); or Mark Cuban (except he\u2019s another reality TV guy), or Tom Steyer (except he, like Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, is a one-trick pony on climate change).<\/p>\n
Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Tim Kaine of Virginia or former Maryland governor Martin O\u2019Malley would be perfect \u2013 if they weren\u2019t 2016 retreads.<\/p>\n
Hillary Clinton herself would be ideal \u2013 if she weren\u2019t a 2016 and a 2008 retread.<\/p>\n
John Kerry would be the logical pick \u2013 if he weren\u2019t a 2004 retread.<\/p>\n
And California Gov. Jerry Brown would be the man \u2013 if he weren\u2019t a 1976, 1980 and 1992 retread.<\/p>\n
I therefore nominate former attorney general Eric Holder \u2013 though he\u2019s an Obama administration retread. My fallbacks, then, are former governors Deval Patrick Massachusetts and Terry McAuliffe of Virginia \u2013 though they\u2019re both Clinton retreads.<\/p>\n
May I propose, then, that Democrats go with a storied name, such as Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts or Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York Although, the Clintons may have killed dynastic politics.<\/p>\n
Hence, my first choice: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. Except he\u2019s unlikely to turn out the 99 percent of Democrats who don\u2019t live on farms.<\/p>\n
This leads us to former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, or Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti \u2013 except Democrats need to appeal to people who live beyond city lines.<\/p>\n
The ultimate pick, therefore, is Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, a gay Democrat in a conservative area. Or, he would be the ultimate pick if he weren\u2019t utterly unknown.<\/p>\n
No one is better known than Oprah Winfrey, who would be terrific \u2013 if only she\u2019d run. Otherwise, Democrats can have Oprah\u2019s friend, spiritual guru Marianne Williamson, who just announced that she\u2019s running.<\/p>\n
Democrats, however, are not feeling their inner harmony at the moment, so they should skip Williamson and go with a street brawler, Michael Avenatti \u2013 assuming he isn\u2019t himself among the prison population on Election Day.<\/p>\n
Which is why the Democrats need somebody sober, predictable and even boring \u2013 such as Bob Casey.<\/p>\n
Dana Milbank is a columnist for The Washington Post.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" we can now stop the bidding. Because a 45th candidate has just emerged, and he is about to clear the field. Yes, the man Democrats have been waiting for, Sen. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, says he has \u201can obligation to consider\u201d running for president \u2013 and tacks on a Trumpian tease: \u201cWe\u2019ll see what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5758,6324],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columnists","category-columnists-dana-milbank"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96947"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}